Hello everyone! We finally have some time to update our blogs so will do a speedy update so that you know what we've been up to over the last few days!

We arrived in Cairns on Saturday (9th) after a 3 hour flight from the Gold Coast. It was a really fast flight and as we landed in Cairns we got a beautiful view of the Barrier Reef from the plane. We now no longer need to pay loads of money for a helicopter ride over the reef - we saw so much and it was just so brilliant! Sadly, we didn't take any photos (we were too gobsmacked!).

When we arrived in Cairns it was raining, yuk, and the weather was really moody and dark pretty much the whole time. We managed to get a bus from the airport to our hostel which we had just booked for one night as we were to pick up our campervan the following day. On the first night we just got our bearings in Cairns - the city is really spaced out and you just get the feeling it's empty! Very eerie, we were expecting it to be full of zombies or something. We need to remember that we are not travelling in peak season though (hence the rain) and therefore there just aren't the crowds everywhere that we got used to in Asia. We had a lovely dinner that evening in a Sushi bar called 'Sushi Train' which means there is a 'track' winding through the restaurant and you just pick whatever you like the look of off the track and eat your way through! (Matt loves this concept). At the end, you take your dirty plates (which are colour coded) to the counter and you just pay for what you eat - genius!

The following morning, we got up bright and early and got all our stuff ready to go. We were both so excited about picking up our van and literally leaped out of bed. Holly had a nasty experience with our room buddy which was a huge cockroach - it climbed up her leg. Matt was in the toilet and could hear the screams. It was both embarassing and violating and we don't wish to discuss it anymore. Let's put it this way - we're both still cringing at the thought of it even now...

We got a lovely healthy breakfast at the only cafe that seemed to be open in Cairns on a Sunday morning at 7.30am (everything opens late and shuts early - what's going on???!) of muesli and raisin toast (our new favourite breakfast) with chai tea, mmmm, and then took a short walk to an industrial estate to pick up the van. As we mentioned before, everything is just so spaced out there is just miles of roads and random buildings all around you - a bit like Milton Keynes industrial parks for those that know it. After worrying that we'd got lost a million times we finally stumbled upon the KEA campervan shop and were acquainted with our new home for the next month - a VW Transporter turned campervan. We are so proud! This baby is easily the most impressive campervan on the road and we get stared at a lot as we cruise around - it's amazing!! After each having such a horrible, run down car back in England it's great to finally be proud of our wheels. We took about an hour with the boring paperwork and then literally run out on to the forecourt to get in to the van and zoomed away!!! Some stats - this van is so cool, it has blacked out windows, power steering, it's an automatic (heaven), air conditioning, fridge, shower, table and chairs and lots of space to sleep either in the back or on a flip up top/bed thing which we will take photos of to show you.

After getting to know the van and buying some much needed supplies, we were off! First stop was north of Cairns, and a lovely little coastal town called 'Port Douglas'. The drive there was really gorgeous - we were literally hugging the coast and got some great views (photos have been uploaded to show you). When we arrived in Port Douglas, we both thought it looked like something out of Desperate Housewives, all the streets are so clean and all houses kept perfectly. And there were no people, anywhere!! So again, we felt like we were in some weird ghost town, it was scarily quiet. We found a spot where we felt comfortable to camp for the night (next to the beach and near a free BBQ point so we could cook our food) and settled down for the night! We wandered in to town that evening to make a few calls home and fell off our healthy eating plan by having the biggest ice cream milkshakes we have ever seen (and we've sampled them in New York!). Not the best thing to indulge on before bed, but we were happy anyway and our first night on the camper was just fine!